How to Hire Your First Salesperson for Startups and Small Businesses
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 6:56 am
For many entrepreneurs, hiring their first salesperson can be stressful. There are many risks involved when hiring your first sales person. So how and where do you start to find a good salesperson that fits your needs, without putting your reputation and investment at risk?
Know What You Want
You start by knowing what you want and how to get there, easier said than done. Here are a few questions to help you get started:
What is the new hire’s sales territory or channel?
What are their sales objectives, can you quantify it?
What tools and or training will you be able to provide?
What is the range of experience of your new hire?
What is the market compensation package of your preferred candidate profile?
By knowing what you want them to accomplish and what it would take to accomplish south korea phone number library these goals including personality and sales activity you will start to define your ideal candidate profile and put parameters around your recruitment search. This is an integral step to avoid any hiring pitfalls.
Don’t Get Blinded By Their Flashy Smiles
The difference between a great salesperson and an average one comes down to one thing, numbers. A great salesperson is more than willing to share their sales numbers with you. A mediocre sales rep will blind you by dropping Fortune 500 companies and names of industry big wigs. By the end of the[ interview you still have no clue whether they had achieved their sales targets last year. Vivian Fung, Sales & Marketing Recruiter described her recruitment strategy for a startup tech firm. The best way to tackle this is to ask about their sales volume, previous targets, sales cycle duration, and always ask them to quantify their achievements.
The difference between a great salesperson and an average one comes down to one thing, numbers
How to Correctly Compare Sales Numbers
Find a salesperson with experience in a similar deal size and sales cycle. Calculate the sales velocity or the number of deals closed within a period. Sales velocity is dependent on your product’s price and the total number of customer contacts a salesperson can make in a month.
Know What You Want
You start by knowing what you want and how to get there, easier said than done. Here are a few questions to help you get started:
What is the new hire’s sales territory or channel?
What are their sales objectives, can you quantify it?
What tools and or training will you be able to provide?
What is the range of experience of your new hire?
What is the market compensation package of your preferred candidate profile?
By knowing what you want them to accomplish and what it would take to accomplish south korea phone number library these goals including personality and sales activity you will start to define your ideal candidate profile and put parameters around your recruitment search. This is an integral step to avoid any hiring pitfalls.
Don’t Get Blinded By Their Flashy Smiles
The difference between a great salesperson and an average one comes down to one thing, numbers. A great salesperson is more than willing to share their sales numbers with you. A mediocre sales rep will blind you by dropping Fortune 500 companies and names of industry big wigs. By the end of the[ interview you still have no clue whether they had achieved their sales targets last year. Vivian Fung, Sales & Marketing Recruiter described her recruitment strategy for a startup tech firm. The best way to tackle this is to ask about their sales volume, previous targets, sales cycle duration, and always ask them to quantify their achievements.
The difference between a great salesperson and an average one comes down to one thing, numbers
How to Correctly Compare Sales Numbers
Find a salesperson with experience in a similar deal size and sales cycle. Calculate the sales velocity or the number of deals closed within a period. Sales velocity is dependent on your product’s price and the total number of customer contacts a salesperson can make in a month.